Severely mentally retarded persons are characteristically inactive or often active in purposeless ways. The aim of the present study was to investigate auditory and visual stimulation as potential reinforcers for six retarded adults on a stationary bicycle ergometer, a task which can promote cardiorespiratory fitness. Auditory stimulation consisted of popular music while visual stimulation was flood lights and blinking Christmas tree lights. A modified multiple baseline across subjects design was employed. All subjects pedalled for a number of sessions without receiving auditory or visual reinforcement, thus constituting baseline performance. Then, three subjects received visual stimulation followed in subsequent sessions by simultaneous audio-visual stimulation while three other subjects received auditory stimulation alone prior to simultaneous audio-visual stimulation. While all six increased their work output over the 35, 18 minute sessions, it was concluded that the reinforcement contingencies were influential in only four of the subjects. It was speculated that auditory stimulation may be a more potent motivator than visual stimulation.
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